Cristiano Ronaldo and his struggles at Manchester United.

It hasn’t been a pleasant start to the season for Cristiano Ronaldo. Despite being Manchester United’s top goalscorer last season, the Portuguese starlet wanted to leave the club all summer, failed to do so and only has two goals so far this season while being a regular sub in Erik Ten Hag’s squad.

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Ronaldo has looked sluggish, failing to connect with his teammates and often as an awkward fit with what the Dutchman is trying to implement in terms of playing style. So what is the cause of this? Why is Ronaldo struggling so much so far this season and why has he ended up as a sub despite being the top goalscorer last season and being, well, Cristiano Ronaldo?

Today we are going to cover some of the main reasons that has led to the former Real Madrid and Juventus man being on the bench and failing to make a positive impact in this current United side.

Natural decline.

This is a pill that might be hard to swallow for longtime fans of Ronaldo, but is part of reality and it can’t be avoided in this particular discussion.

Ronaldo’s decline might not be as pronounced as other players’ when they are approaching being 38 years old, but the Portuguese starlet has definitely lost a step or two and that is shown in his performances this season: he looks sluggish, lacking any sort of pace and, to be quite frank, even less athletic than others at times.

Manager Erik Ten Hag prefers playing with younger players as he can demand a lot more from a physical perspective. They can press more, they can run more and they can do a lot of the dirty work that is necessary to keep the team’s shape when off-the-ball. Ronaldo can’t offer that at his age (and to be fair, he was never much of a presser in his prime, anyway).

This is an aspect of Ronaldo’s poor form right now that is not taken into account and plays a big role as to why Ten Hag has decided to have him as a sub when he has other choices at his disposal.

Personal issues.

At the end of last season, Cristiano Ronaldo made a public statement revealing the death of one of the twins he was going to have with his partner, Georgina. Sadly, one of them passed away in the womb and there have been several reports ever since that Ronaldo has been going through some mental problems due to that event.

This is something that has nothing to do with football but is also perfectly understandable that Ronaldo can’t perform at his usual level. Losing a son or a daughter is a tragic event that no parent wants to go through and even if you are as successful as Cristiano Ronaldo, this is bound to take a toll on you.

When it comes to this particular situation, there is nothing else that can be said. Hopefully, Ronaldo is getting the support and help that he needs in order to overcome such a sad, painful ordeal.

The need to be the main focus.

As Ronaldo got older, he switched from the left flank to playing as a center striker, which is something that has helped him to stay relevant as a player because he can no longer rely on his pace to deliver the goods. But this has also played a monumental role in how his teams, whether it’s Juventus, Manchester United or the Portugal national team, set up tactically.

Leonardo Bonucci, Ronaldo’s former teammate at Juve, said that when Cristiano was playing in the Old Lady, there was this unspoken need to pass the ball to him and that made the squad lose that always so necessary team spirit. It can also be seen in Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United: when Ronaldo is playing, the attack becomes a lot less fluid and a lot more Ronaldo-centric, stopping the teamwork nature that the Dutchman wants to implement.

In that regard, Ten Hag has always preferred a fluid attacking approach where players move, they have several goalscorers and so on. This is something that, at least as of this writing, cannot be achieved with Ronaldo as a key player in the squad.

This is purely tactical but is the very reason why Ronaldo doesn’t fit and why his form has suffered. It’s not his fault that Ten Hag wants to play in a way that doesn’t suit him, but by the same token, it’s not Ten Hag’s fault that this was the style that got him the United job and that a player that didn’t want to be here is not performing.

Speaking of that last part…

His failed attempt to leave this last summer.

It’s no secret that Ronaldo wanted to leave Manchester United last summer. It was everywhere in social media and even sporting directors from clubs such as Bayern Munich, Napoli, Atletico Madrid and Sporting Lisboa talked about it when they were linked with the Portuguese. Having said that, Ronaldo failed to reach an agreement with a team and ended up staying.

Even ignoring the obvious frustration of staying at a place you don’t want to be a part of, there is also the factor that Ronaldo didn’t show up for preseason. For a player of his age, preseason is extremely important to get in shape and to get a decent pace to prepare for the upcoming season, which is something that definitely took a toll on him.

Plus, not showing up for preseason also kept him from working tactical variations with Ten Hag, who has stated in the past that preseason is where he does most of his tactical work. Now he didn’t have that opportunity with Ronaldo and it shows on the pitch as the former Madrid man is often looking like the odd man out.

Ronaldo’s performances were to be expected if you had a more unbiased perspective about his time at United and everything points out to him leaving sooner than later.